You really have to love when a supposedly professional “news” organization makes a complete fool out of themselves – especially when it involves Fox. That’s what happened today when Fox Business attempted to report on the Super Bowl by claiming the NFL is bracing for “record-low attendance” this year.

The reporter, Elizabeth MacDonald, stumbled her way through random talk of recent attendance figures and speculation that high attendance at past games was due to the popularity of the teams playing. For example, she mentions Super Bowl XLV between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers, which drew over 103,000. “The Steelers/Packers game, that was 103,000, you know the Packers are really a draw,” she says. There’s one major problem with that – the Super Bowl alternates where it’s played from year to year and each stadium has a different capacity, with some stadiums holding upwards of 10-40k more than others. Super Bowl XLV was held at Cowboy Stadium in Arlington, Texas, which had its already large capacity expanded to accommodate the 103,000 who attended (in fact, a few hundred had to be turned away after they had already purchased tickets). This year, Super Bowl XLIX will be played at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, and will have a sell-out attendance of approximately 72,000.

The way MacDonald’s report is laid out makes you think that Fox Business believes the Super Bowl is played in the same stadium every year, and attendance varies from year to year based on the popularity of the teams playing. Are these people really that dense? Can they not utilize Google before giving a report the green light to go on air?

Not only that, but MacDonald claims that ticket prices are coming in at around $800-$1900 for this year’s Super Bowl – but currently the cheapest ticket on NFL Ticket Exchange is $2462 (and that’s for a nosebleed seat).

The “source” Fox Business seems to have used for this ridiculous report seems to have been an article from a “contributor” on Forbes.com, which has since been edited to remove pretty much all talk of actual attendance figures at the games which made up a large chunk of the original unedited article. In fact, the article’s author clarified himself in a response on the site, stating, “The basis of the story was in terms of the amount of fans traveling to Arizona for the game, not actually attending the game itself. I probably shouldn’t have cited attendance figures either since that really confused matters.”

So here we have Fox Business crafting an entire story about dwindling Super Bowl attendance figures apparently from a random article from a Forbes.com contributor which has since been edited to remove talk of actual Super Bowl attendance figures. You really can’t make this stuff up, can you?

And then for the icing on the cake, host Maria Bartiromo ends the segment by claiming that attendance at the games might be dwindling because people are choosing to stay at home and host Super Bowl parties instead. Perfect.

Thomas Barr is a writer, editor and activist who's passionate about progressive ideals, with extra attention given to the fight for universal health care, medical marijuana, and saving our nation from decades of devastating trickle-down policies. Thomas is also a dedicated advocate for Type 1 diabetes research and education. Be sure to check out his archives on Forward Progressives for more of his viewpoints.